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Letters to Cyclingnews - March 12, 2009

With the launch of Cyclingnews' online forum, the letters pages of
our site will be less regular, and readers are encouraged to participate in
the new platform. Letters to our editorial staff are still welcome, however,
and we'll endeavour to publish reader correspondence in the manner you're accustomed
to, albeit less frequently.

Comments and criticism on current stories, races, coverage and anything cycling
related are welcomed, even pictures if you wish. Letters should be brief (less
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space and clarity; please stick to one topic per letter. We will normally include
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Chad Gerlach: A new lease on love and life

I just got online and I was amazed and delighted to see that Chad Gerlach is
racing again. It is a shame that all of his talent and his life was put on hold
due to his addictions. I am extremely happy to hear of his recovery as I have
known Chad since we were 15 when we raced as juniors. We either raced on the
same team or traveled together for many years and shared a lot of ups and downs.

After I stopped racing we lost touch and when I tried to find him, I found
out that he was living on the street. Losing touch with him has been one of
my regrets in life and I would love to talk to him again.

Chad Gerlach: A new lease on love and life #2

The interview with Chad Gerlach broke my heart but should help everyone understand
that we all have personal demons which can pursue us. I have found that friends,
therapists, wise counsel from everyone and anyone who cares about you is essential.

Cycling has always been important to me and I'm certainly not a professional
rider and never had much talent but simply a senior amateur who likes to ride.
I love the sport and follow it but life is more complex and important than our
immediate passions.

Chad Gerlach: A new lease on love and life #3

Freakin' awesome story! That is certainly a great comeback story that Chad
has just begun to write in his journey back. I wish him the best and with this
new focus on life, riding and getting his life back on track - he is an inspiration
to us all.

Contador and Astana

How are we as cycling fans supposed to react after we sit and watch the 170lbs
reigning world and Olympic pursuit champ beaten soundly in his speciality event
by a 140lbs Spanish climber? Phenomenal performance but I just don't believe
it to be authentic. Bruneel's Astana setup will no doubt continue to produce
phenomenal performances throughout the season. TT specialists didn't used to
get thrashed by climbers - is it a new development? Is it really good for our
sport? Does anyone care anymore? I'm starting to think it's becoming a farce.

Contador wins a prologue

So, let me get this straight: Alberto Contador, a 62kg climber who is (in theory)
only just beginning to build form for the Tour de France, beat Bradley Wiggins,
a 77kg time trial specialist and Olympic pursuit champion who has been training
specifically to win the Paris-Nice prologue, by seven seconds on a nine-kilometre
course. If he continues to progress like this he'll be winning bunch sprints
by the time we get to Le Tour. The only phrase I can think of to describe his
performance is 'super-human'.

Paul Kimmage

This idea that Paul Kimmage is a loser and didn't make it as a pro-cyclist
is grossly unfair. He rode the Tour de France and the Giro as well as world
championships. This makes him a much better cyclist than 99 percent of the people
who read these pages. In addition he is an award winning Sports journalist successfully
interviewing athletes across all sports and not just cycling.

Through his book, 'A Rough Ride' he bravely pioneered the anti-doping movement
in cycling which up to then and for years afterwards was a farce. Many professional
and amateur cyclists had died from abusing drugs and so his book was important
for its time (and still is). After he wrote this book he disappeared from cycling
as he was vilified for having bitten the hand that fed him.

During his absence the sport continued to despicably devour itself. This ultimately
lead to the Festina affair and an apparent breaking-point in Operacion Puerto.
It is thanks to his reappearance and the work of others that a turning-point
in cycling has been reached and that cycling is owning up to its mistakes. It
is thanks to Paul Kimmage and people like him who felt passionately about the
injustice of doping in sport that clean riders now have a greater voice than
before. The vast majority of readers welcome this supposed 'new era' of cycling
that he (and the multitude of dopers) helped create.

We do not have to like what he says, how he writes or how he rides a bike but
we should not dismiss his 'moaning'. Paul Kimmage is already successful in his
day-job so does not speak out against Lance for the publicity or for the money.
He might not always be right or go about things in the right way but it is important
that his voice is heard and that people don't repeat the mistakes of the past
by vilifiying him and turning him away from the sport.

Clearly he is as passionate about anti-doping in cycling as we are about cycling
but his work is still not done. Arguably he does it because he is passionate
about the sport. He is a fan just like us. Anyone who understands doping and
cycling can see that the sport is still not clean (Paris-Nice prologue, anyone?).
As much as the cleaner riders are speaking out they are not naming names or
else they will suffer the same fate as Kimmage did all those years ago.

Paul Kimmage is already an outsider, he can say things that clean riders can't
say. He is right to ask Lance why he is friends with Basso, Hamilton, Landis
et al; as our mothers would say, show me your friends and I'll show you who
you are. He is also right to question why convicted dopers and frauds are welcomed
back into the sport by the media and celebrated as if they never left (Basso
etc). We mightn't like the questions or the person asking them but the questions
need to be asked. What Paul Kimmage does he does with a great deal of integrity,
which is a lot more than can be said for some of Lance's actions in the past.
It Paul Kimmage is a 'loser' for all his achievements then what the hell are
we?

Gianni Da Ros

Regarding the arrest of Liquigas' neo-professional Gianni Da Ros for drug trafficking,
it begs the uncomfortable question: are domestiques being used to carry something
other than just water? I hope not.

October 3: Another
Armstrong Special: There comes a time, Guilty by association, Lance Armstrong
returning, Armstrong comeback, Armstrong should be applauded, Lance is back,
Armstrong and Astana, Mr Armstrong and SRAM, The resurrection of Lance, Armstrong's
return

August 21: Levi
Leipheimers Bike, John Fahey and Jacques Rogge on doping, Cycling out of the
Olympics, Team Australia helmets, Scott-American Beef excluded from Vuelta,
Doping & money, U-23 National Championship RR fiasco, US Cyclists and masks,
World Road race championships national quotas

July 25: Confused,
Consistency please, Damages paid, Dave Russell passes away, David Miller on
Riccò, Do you believe?, Doping, ASO vs UCI, what is going on?, Evans to wear
number one in Tour, How does Andy Schleck "kill all the moves"?

July 24: Gerrans,
One question & two predictions about the Tour, A bike by any other name,
ASO, doping and Astana, Beating a dead horse, but..., Boycott le Tour and
Olympics, Cascade Cycling Classic accident, Cleaning up cycling, a suggestion

March 6: Zirbel
and the"ride of his life", British track sprinters' helmets, Hamilton, Operacion
Puerto and the ToCA, Three grand tours or five monuments?, Rock Racing and
Michael Ball, Pro cycling is dead, Paris - Nice, Knife between the ribs?,
Doping and the Tour, Astana, the ASO and the UCI, ASO vs. Astana, The Astana
affair, ASO vs. UCI vs. AIGCP vs. the non existent riders, The real ASO problem,
Denounce ASO's actions for what they are, Sponsorship code of ethics, Where
are the other ProTour teams?, ProTour vs. ASO

February 28: ASO
vs. Astana, Passion and sponsorship, Crash or crash through, Pro cycling is
dead, Why we must have the ProTour, Rock Racing and Michael Ball, ToC and
Rock, The hidden message behind banning Astana, ASO is killing cycling, ASO
could be right, The real ASO problem, UCI - draw a line in the sand, ASO has
lost the plot, The Astana affair, Astana and ASO/RCS, the Astana decision,
Operacion Puerto, Old rider classification

February 1: UCI
vs. Grand Tour war, Best wishes to Anna, The incident, Rock racing & Starbucks,
Rock racing Rocks, Rock racing, Landis in NUE, Lance is the best of all time,
Sinkewitz logic, Astana for 08 Tour?

January 25: Rock
racing, Time to draw a line in the sand, ASO vs. UCI ProTour, UCI vs. Grand
Tour war spills over to European federations, Readers' poll stage races 2007,
Cyclist of the year, Team High Road's black kit, Lance is the best of all
time, Landis in NUE, Toyota-United abusing USAC team rules?

January 18: Cadel
Evans - returns to training, Cyclist of the Year, DOPING - time to draw a
line in the sand, Hincapie in T-Mobile kit, Lance is the best of all time,
Readers poll: best stage races 2007, Rock racing, Speaking about Lance, Toyota-United
abusing USAC team rules?

Letters 2007

December 14: Sydor's
consistency, George Hincapie, Helmet straps must be cinched a bit too tight,
Will there soon be a sample"C"test?, ProTour, Vino's joke of a suspension,
Mafioso McQuaid, Obee and Health Net, Mayo's B sample to get B test, Campagnolo
offers its own 'red' shifter, T-Mobile's withdrawal a blow to Jaksche